I Found Wall Street’s Platitude Poem

>Image Credit: Attributed to Francois Boucher, “Poetry” (18th century), The Frick Collection via Wikimedia Commons

The artists of the early-20th-century Dada movement popularized the idea of “found poetry,” composed from snatches of conversation overheard on the sidewalk and other semi-random sources. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of my column for The Wall Street Journal, I decided to assemble a poem entirely from investing clichés, proverbs, and platitudes. Here is the beginning; click on the link to read the rest at WSJ.com.

Buy low, sell high,

Trees don’t grow to the sky.

Buy right and hold tight,

Sell in May and go away.

As January goes, so goes the year.

Buy the rumor, sell the news,

Buy the dips, sell the rips,

Buy on the cannons, sell on the trumpets.

Don’t fight the tape.

Don’t fight the Fed.

The trend is your friend….

Read the rest of the column

This article was originally published on The Wall Street Journal.


Further reading

Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor


Further reading